The use of repeaters by wireless service providers is increasing rapidly. Wireless service providers are under constant pressure by their customers to improve and expand coverage while decreasing the cost of service. This conflicts with the pressure from investors and stockholders to increase earnings and decrease expenses. In addition, local zoning and regulatory pressures often limit or preclude placement of base station sites in the optimum locations. Because of these pressures, service providers require cost-effective alternatives to installing additional base stations to expand coverage. The repeater has become a recognized tool to help service providers expand coverage and fill in coverage in null areas without the expense of full base station sites.
The repeater market is highly competitive. Repeater manufactures are under constant pressure from customers and competitors to provide lower cost solutions. Additional pressure results from the base station manufacturers as they add more capability, reduce size, and reduce costs in the base station products.
For a repeater site, the repeater itself represents a significant percentage of the total hardware costs. In addition to the repeater, a typical repeater site includes hardware such as antennas, antenna mounts, coaxial cables, and cable mounting hardware. Since the repeater represents a large percentage of the total hardware costs for a repeater site, it provides the best opportunity for significant cost reductions. However, the hardware costs are only a portion of the total costs of a repeater site. A significant cost is associated with the installation and testing of the repeater. Installation costs are high because of the level of expertise needed to perform the tasks for a repeater site. Some of these tasks include:                mounting and alignment of the donor and null antennas,        installation of coaxial cables, grounding, and primary AC power cables,        measurement of the donor to null antenna isolation,        customization of the antenna installation to improve antenna isolation,        alignment of repeater gain to insure stability of the repeater site and compliance with equipment specifications such as output power ratings.        
This invention incorporates several concepts to create an integrated repeater that significantly reduces the installation costs for a repeater site. In one embodiment of the invention, the only equipment to install is the repeater itself and the primary AC power cables. In addition, the repeater in this invention contains support software and equipment to allow the repeater to perform antenna alignment and gain set up with only minimal support from technical personnel. This invention, while potentially increasing the repeater hardware costs, results in a reduction of the total cost of a repeater site.